Changing Oceans

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, which have enabled the evolution of complex life, control the Earth's climate and weather, and provide food for a significant portion of the world's population. The human influence on the oceans is significant and growing, driving change in a range of important physical, chemical and biological ocean processes in marine and coastal environments. The unit will explore the extent to which humans are driving environmental change in the ocean, and the impacts of this change. Students will learn about: (i) the responses of the oceans to climate change, including sea level rise, changes to polar oceanography, marine heatwaves, carbon cycles, extreme weather events, ocean acidification and deoxygenation. (ii) the impacts of human pollution of the ocean environment, including from plastics, oil spills, high nutrient concentrations and noise, and the transport processes that control the fate of these pollutants.